LCSNA Spring Conference 2026

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Welcome! Spring 2026 Conference of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America San Francisco Bay Area June 19 – 21

Transportation to and within San Francisco

Attendees will probably fly into San Francisco (SFO), but Oakland (OAK) or San Jose (SJC) are alternatives.
Driving a car in San Francisco is challenging, and parking is quite expensive. Within the city, Uber, Lyft, or the driverless Waymo are fine options to get to or from the conference venue at Fort Mason.

Hotels

There are three areas to consider staying relative
to the Saturday conference venue at Fort Mason:

About a half-mile away are the least pricey options,
in the corridor along Lombard Street from Van Ness to Lyon.

More upscale are the hotels at Fisherman’s Wharf.

About 2½ miles away, some of the nicest hotels are in Union Square, downtown.

(Airbnb’s are also widely available. )

Saturday, June 20

Our program will take place at the scenic Ft. Mason
Arts & Culture Center, overlooking the Bay.

2 Marina Blvd, Building C, Room 205

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

The Arion Press is the last type foundry in America, known for their exquisite fine-press books. This year, one of them will be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! We will be given a talk by that team, hopefully including the illustrator, then a tour of their facilities.

A three-course dinner will follow in a private room in Green’s, one of the most honored vegetarian restaurants in the country, with lovely views of the harbor. It is a few feet from Arion.

Note: There will be no Schaefer Reading on Friday, as schools are out for the summer. 

Conference Speakers

A team from Arion Press, founded by Andrew Hoyem a half-century ago, will be discussing their new deluxe, fine-press edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Rupy C. Tut, an Indian-born American visual artist who specializes in Indian miniature paintings and makes her own pigments.

President emeritus Mark Burstein has been collecting Carroll since his father, Sandor, started their collection in the mid-Seventies. He has been editing the Knight Letter in one role or another since 1995 and has edited, created, or introduced close to thirty books on Carroll. Illustrators are his particular forte.

Matt Crandall has been collecting and writing about this movie for more than 35 years. His brand-new book, Down the Rabbit Hole: Collecting “Alice in Wonderland,” explores the vast world of the promotions and merchandise surrounding the film.

Palo Alto visual artist Linda Gray-Moin specializes in figurative oils on canvas, though recent projects have taken a 3D turn. Her latest work has involved a re-creation of Carroll’s home environment including restorations of many of his favorite possessions, which serve to reanimate his Victorian milieu.

Arnold Hirshon, our current president, is a lifelong Carroll collector, particularly of illustrated editions, and has addressed our Society on the topic. He was also the co-editor of Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The English-language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide.

Scott Kim is a startup coach, puzzle designer, and co-creator of the art of ambi-grams. He has contributed to many books on illusionary art and mathematical puzzles and was recently recognized as an innovative problem solver as an honoree of the Eames Institute Curious 100.

Ukrainian-born Canadian artist Oleg Lipchenko is well known to Carrollians, having illustrated both Alice books as well as the Snark and presenting to our Society on four occasions.

Hayley Rushing has studied at the College of William & Mary; the University of Glasgow, Scotland; UCLA; and the University of Missouri. She has published articles and reviews for the Knight Letter and is a contributor for an upcoming volume about Wonderland and its cross-disciplinary afterlives.

Optional Excursions

There are two optional excursions at this meeting at no additional charge.
A map, below, shows the relative locations of the two open houses.
For each of them, a rideshare such as Uber will cost about $80 each way;
the cost per person would be much reduced by carpooling.

Open House # 1: Friday, June 19

Linda Gray-Moin’s studio in Palo Alto is located about 45 minutes from San Francisco. She has re-created the mantle and fireplace in Dodgson’s rooms in Christ Church and has amassed a large collection of gadgets and music boxes that he owned (same models, not his personal ones). We will then go to her house and “the loveliest garden you ever saw” for drinks and refreshments. There will be two groups for her studio visit: one at 1 pm, one at 2 pm. The garden party will begin at 3:30 and run to 5:30-6:00.

Caltrain provides a direct train service between San Francisco (4th and King) and Palo Alto, with trains running approximately every 30 minutes in each direction ($8.50 one way). Her studio is a 5-min walk from the station; her home is on the Stanford University campus, a 10-minute drive from the studio, or you can use Uber, Lyft, or Waymo.

Open House # 2: Sunday, June 21

Our second optional excursion will be to the home of Mark Burstein and Llisa Demetrios. Mark’s Alice Room is legendary, with 4,500+ books in 161 languages, and much original art. Other mini-museums on the premises include the American comic strip, underground comix, and Eames furniture and design.* (For those who visited Petaluma in 2011 or 2017, please note this is a new, albeit nearby, home!) Open house will be from 9 am to 5 pm.

To get there: From San Francisco, there are Golden Gate Transit buses that can take you to Petaluma or Novato, but we highly recommend carpooling in Ubers. Light refreshments will be served.

For those who are going from the open house directly to the airport, there’s an Airporter (Groome Transport) that runs to SFO or OAK from Petaluma or northern Novato, each about a 10-minute ride from Mark’s house.

* Llisa is the Eameses’ granddaughter. On her other side, Llisa’s grandmother is Virginia Lee Burton, children’s book author and illustrator (Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Caldecott medalist for The Little House, etc.).

NOTE
An email will be sent to all registrants a few weeks prior to the conference, asking for meal choices and group sign-ups, and giving addresses and exact directions for the open houses.

Map of the Optional Excursions

Conference Tickets

Note About Reservation Cancellations. Should you be unable to attend, your registration is transferrable by simply notifying us to whom you have assigned your reservation.  Should you need to cancel prior to Sunday, May 31, 100% of the paid fees may be refunded. If cancelled after this date, the refund will be 50%. All refunds will be processed after the conclusion of the conference.